He conferred the rights of citizenship
upon distant communities as had been done in the early days
of Roman history. He permitted ``foreigners'' to exercise
influence upon the government. He reformed the administration
of the distant provinces which certain aristocratic families
had come to regard as their private possessions. In short he
did many things for the good of the majority of the people but
which made him thoroughly unpopular with the most powerful
men in the state. Half a hundred young aristocrats formed a
plot ``to save the Republic.'' On the Ides of March (the fifteenth
of March according to that new calendar which Caesar
had brought with him from Egypt) Caesar was murdered when
he entered the Senate. Once more Rome was without a master.
There were two men who tried to continue the tradition of
Caesar's glory. One was Antony, his former secretary. The
other was Octavian, Caesar's grand-nephew and heir to his
estate. Octavian remained in Rome, but Antony went to Egypt
to be near Cleopatra with whom he too had fallen in love, as
seems to have been the habit of Roman generals.
A war broke out between the two. In the battle of Actium,
Octavian defeated Antony. Antony killed himself and
Cleopatra was left alone to face the enemy. She tried very
hard to make Octavian her third Roman conquest. When she
saw that she could make no impression upon this very proud
aristocrat, she killed herself, and Egypt became a Roman province.
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